I hope I'll get enough attention on this one. I have an old 1907 Carl Gustav M96 Swedish Mauser in 6.5x55 swedish. I've been using it for military rifle competition and recently bought some (older) Norma factory ammunition from a gun show but am now concerned about using this stuff in the old swede.

I've read many times over that american ammo makers load down old cartridges in lots of European calibres like the 6.5 swede and the 8mm mauser but that Lapua and Norma produce full/modern power ammunition which can't safely be used in these old guns.

I'm therefore considering pulling these factory rounds apart and reducing the load to make it safe for my old swede.

I just want to make sure I'm going to do this right. I've read that the powder in the ammo is RL-22 but given that theres no label in there I'm not going to trust that it is.

If I assume that the powder in there is loaded to max (which it won't be) - can I simply reduce the load by 15% and use this safely?

Let me know if I'm taking too big a risk or whether I'd be best to burn the powder and just reload the factory rounds with a powder load of my own.

A pic of the ammo box is attached for reference as the stuff i bought is older ammo, not the newest stuff from Norma

I wouldn't worry about running Norma ammo through a Swede M96. The reason for downloading 8x57 is that the Germans changed from a .318 bore to a .323 bore when they went from the 7.92x57 to the 8x57JS. The land to land diameter stayed the same, so the newer rifles could shoot the older ammo, but the bore diameter increased so the older rifle shouldn't shoot the newer ammo.

The Swedes never screwed with their bore size, and Norma brass is very unlikely to have a catastrophic failure (which is why pre-m98 actions are recommended for low pressure loads, they are strong enough to handle full power loads but don't have the gas handling safety features of the m98).

So shoot them as is.

Jimro

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"Gorsh" said Goofy as secondary explosions racked the beaten zone, "Did I do that?"

The Norma factory ammo you have pictured should work fine in your rifle. I have shot quite a few boxes of Norma myself thru my 96. I have read that max pressure for these rifles are around 45K.
IMHO, I would fire the ammo and save the cases for reloading and work your own reduced load. Some reloading manuals have approximate pressures listed for their test barrels for certain powders and bullets which should give you a good idea.
One thing I have observed about my 96 is it prefers the longer heavier bullets over the light weights if you want exceptional accuracy.

Agree. As you download you reduce pressure and that reduces the burning regularity of the powder and can be detrimental to accuracy if you don't handle it in a systematic way that probably requires more ammo than you have.

The Swedish action is not a strength wimp. I know a gunsmith who chambered one in .350 Rem Mag. As Jimro said, the issue is the lack of safety features, so the main thing to concern yourself with is good quality brass in good condition that won't fail prematurely. Norma has that covered with new ammo, so you should be just fine. You can then go on to find a milder load for yourself later.

Understand that as long as the gun isn't severely corroded, it will withstand proof loads that are 30% warmer than factory ammo. A steady diet of them would eventually set bolt lugs back more than is best for strength, but small numbers of slightly warmer than usual rounds should not be a dietary problem for it.

A modern rifle yes. I'm sure you guys would think twice before putting modern 30-06 through a M1903, or modern shotshells through a damascus barrel shotgun.

Either way, i measured the load inside the rounds - 49.5 grains of what i can only speculate is RL-22. If this is the case then my reloading book indicates a max load of 48 grains, but there's probably a fair margin of safety built in. The test gun for the load data was a Swedish M96 after all

As Jimro stated though, it's just the gas safety venting thats lacking so I should be OK. rifles in good condition. This will pretty much be the last factory ammo going through this rifle anyway, the rest will all be reduced pressure reloads.

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